740128 - LEAD - Visual ID

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(Marketing :: Design, task)

Description

[Tara (musingt)]

Establishing a simple visual ID for the LEAD initiative: Leadership Exploration And Development.  This is an internal campaign, but it's important that we establish a strong visual cue / theme to package everything up. 

This will be a typographic solution / treatment of the "LEAD" acronym.  This will be presented across all LEAD program assets and related materials (powerpoint presentations, documents, pamphlets, etc) in addition to the possibility of swag items such as hats and t-shirts. 

Lee, would love your help with this: creating a treatment of "LEAD" + "Leadership Exploration & Development.  Perhaps with open sans.  Should be straight forward with a touch of awesome. 

This will be the main mark that will then be branded further with the Firefox orange hue (similar to the MWC / brand book).  So, it would be nice to have this mark in white (as placed against the orange) and also in a darker color for other use cases.

Comment 1

[Kate]

Terrific - love the write up and "touch of awesome" direction!
Kate (Roeske)

Comment 2

[Lee Tom]

Attachment: LEAD visual ID -01

Hi All,
Please take a look at the 3 LEAD ID comps (labeled A,B and C) and let me know what you think. I think any of the three would work well for various LEAD touch-points. Hope you like 'em!

Comment 3

[John Slater]

Love all of these...A is probably my favorite.

One thought that just dawned on me - how will we connect this to Mozilla?

Comment 4

[Kate]

I love all of these as well.  A and C are my favorites.  In terms of how we connect with Mozilla - that is something to talk to Deb about. Or, how have you all connected these sorts of initiatives in the past to Mozilla?
But, I love this direction - colors and ideas in the logos!

Comment 5

[Athena Katsaros]

Great work. I like C. I'd love to see it with the font and the plus sign a little bolder. I'd love to hear Deb's perspective.

(In reply to Kate from comment #4)

> I love all of these as well.  A and C are my favorites.  In terms of how we
> connect with Mozilla - that is something to talk to Deb about. Or, how have
> you all connected these sorts of initiatives in the past to Mozilla?
> But, I love this direction - colors and ideas in the logos!

Comment 6

[Lee Tom]

I'm happy that you like the direction of these logos. fwiw, I think option B is my favorite of the bunch. I think it's the most readable and original of the three. That said, I'm happy to go with the logo that resonates the most with you. Thanks!

Comment 7

[Tara (musingt)]

Hey guys, lets wait and hear from Deb first before finalizing anything.  I'll send an email to flag this on her radar.

My 2 cents:

* I like A & B.  

>>Concept C: 

* Like this overall, but not for this program.
* Don't like how the letters are presented in a grid-like format - which makes it hard to read in one go as a word "LEAD". 

>>Concept A:  

* Like: the play on the arrow and how it suggests moving up / growth, etc.
* Like: the overall simplicity of it.  
* I wonder if it would look good to align the line of the arrow with the left side of the "A".  Lee what do you think?

>>Concept B:

* Like: that the arrow is a little more stylized/unique/bold and echoes a cursor (which ties this to the tech space).  
* Like: that the lettering is bigger and the badge feels cleaner than on Concept A. * Don't like: that the word "LEAD" isn't as clear given the way the A is styled.  
* Which makes me prefer Concept A even though I really do like B very much.

>>Other thoughts:
* I know the "A" simply stands for "and" vs. a key part of the program, but it's a key part of the acronym in that it spells out "Lead".  So I'd like the badge to communicate that clearly if we can.

>>Incorporating "mozilla":
* I thought the way we'd do this is by presenting the mozilla wordmark in white in the footer of the various pieces.  Unless this is something like "Mozilla's Leadership Exploration and Development" program (or "MLEAD" j/k) then I think it would be nice to keep them separate and instead put the mark in the context of our orange color theme and the mozilla wordmark without literally attaching the two together.
--------

So, I think Concept A with a few small tweaks can be great. 
Great job Lee

Comment 8

[Debbie Cohen]

So I like concept A with a few tweaks (and one, maybe crazy idea).

Tweaks:

1) Curious if the outline of the circle could actually be the outline of the firefox hugging the world, so it would not be a perfect circle, but a subtle outline of our logo.  

2) I like Tara's suggestion of aligning the arrow with the A. It throws my eye off a bit as is. I also agree with her thoughts on what the arrow symbolizes.

3) Wonder if the font could be a bit heavier? Or maybe the lines a bit bolder on the circle (could be addressed with crazy idea 1).

Thanks!  Very exciting.

Deb

Comment 9

[Tara (musingt)]

Thanks Deb, glad to hear you're liking these.  So, Lee can share his thoughts on next steps, but I propose that we:

* Take concept A and make some tweaks.
* Work on the lettering a bit to polish up and add more weight so the arrow and letters feel more bold like in concept B.
* I see where you're going with the Firefox outline vs. a circle, but I feel that it will take away from the crisp/clean feel that we have right now.  And it will not be as easily recognized as the Firefox given that it's a basic outline with unfamiliar elements inside it.  It could also be construed as a brand violation if we really want to take it that far.  The circle will be a stronger frame and it abstractly stands for things that we believe in:  community, collaboration, global, etc.  I suggest we go with the circle, and anchor this in with the mozilla wordmark.

Comment 10

[Lee Tom]

Attachment: LEAD visual ID AI file

Thanks for the great ideas, suggestions and feedback, Everyone. 

I made tweaks to Version A that you responded positively to - giving the letter-forms more visual weight and optimized margins for the better readability. Deb, I also increased the weight of the outlining ring/border and think that this really helps make the mark feel bolder and more substantial. 

Attached is the final vector file (version A) that is ready for use. It has been my understanding that this visual ID may span over many forms, so I'm providing a variety of badges (the standalone circles with "LEAD") and the logo + "Leadership Exploration And Development" lockup. All of these should work well across different collateral; business cards, letterhead, packaging and swag etc. 

With regards to integrating the Mozilla wordmark, I think it could be easily implemented once we start designing various LEAD collateral.

Comment 11

[Lee Tom]

Attachment: LEAD visual ID -02

Apologies for posting the Illustrator file (which you may not be able to open.) Here's a PNG for easy viewing. Thanks! L

Comment 12

[Tara (musingt)]

Thanks Lee.  Looks good. 

Deb, Athena, Kate... are we good to go here? I'm closing this out so we can move forward into the other bugs (template design, and content formatting). 

Please flag if there are any issues.  Otherwise, marking this component as "done".

wohoo!

Comment 13

[Debbie Cohen]

Hi Everyone: On the phone with Athena

The logo is looking really good but two last requests:

1) Can the arrow be put in the same line as the A?
2) In the spell-out of LEAD please remove the italics.

If we can make these two changes, we are good to go.

Deb

Comment 14

[John Slater]

Thanks all. Re: the feedback in comment #13, we can remove the italics easily enough but I'd prefer to keep the arrow the way it is. I understand where you're coming from, but right now the arrow is intersecting at a 45 degree angle, which adds a nice feel of balance to the whole thing. I think if we moved it to run through the A, it would throw things off more than we want.

How does that sound?

Comment 15

[Lee Tom]

Attachment: LEAD visual ID

Here's a new mockup reflecting the changes John mentioned above. I made the change to the "A", matching the weight and angle of the other letters.

Comment 16

[Lee Tom]

Attachment: LEAD visual ID

Apologies, but I forgot to un-italicize the "AND" in the last comment. New mockup attached here.

Comment 17

[John Slater]

Thanks Lee!

Comment 18

[Kate]

Looks great to me!  I love it!
Kate

Comment 19

[Athena Katsaros]

That's great Lee. Let's call this final.

Looking forward to getting the Word template!